The invention relates to voice-activated systems, and particularly to instruments for making measurements under voice command.
Voice-activated and sound-operated devices are becoming increasingly useful, in applications ranging from lamp dimmers to television remote controls to surgical tools. Some products respond to sound levels, without interpreting the sound as speech. Such non-word-recognizing sound-activated systems include voice recorders, games, and security systems. Other products actually interpret sounds as spoken commands, and respond differently to each recognized command. Voice-controlled phone dialers, GPS systems, alarm clocks, and certain robotic toys perform such word recognition. Even coffee pots now accept a voice command.
Practical data measurement systems, on the other hand, have not kept pace with voice-activation technology. Event counting and interval timing are just two types of measurements that would greatly benefit from a hands-free command capability. Consider a laboratory technician or a researcher handling racks of multiple samples, counting out aliquots of reagents. The worker is constantly counting, necessarily dividing attention between the samples and the tally sheet. A voice-activated counting device would be extremely beneficial. Likewise a retail store must count stock periodically, or an assembly-line worker who has to keep track of how many bolts he has installed on a chassis, or a cook counting out spoonfuls, and innumerable other applications needing a voice-activated counter. Tragically, no such device exists.
A similar deficit is apparent in the area of voice-activated interval timing. For example in sports training, it would be very useful if a time interval could be measured hands-free, using only voice commands. In electronics development and testing, in many areas of research, in psychological testing, and innumerable other situations it would be valuable to measure a time interval by voice. While there are many voice-activated alarm clocks on the market, and some are marketed as “timers”, in fact none of them has a stopwatch capability with voice-controlled start and stop function.
Many other measurement instruments would likewise benefit from voice control. Consider a worker measuring a size or distance with a caliper or electronic tape measure, but having difficulty reading the device due to darkness, position, etc. A voice trigger would solve this problem if it locked the measurement on command, to be read later. For weighing, a voice-triggered scale would allow the operator to focus on the load rather than the instrument. For electrical measurements (voltage, current, resistance, frequency, etc.) a measurement could be triggered by voice at the exact moment desired. A voice-triggered digital thermometer would allow the user to lock and hold the temperature reading, when holding the probe upon a specific location. For magnetic field measurements, a voice-activated Gaussmeter would simplify field mapping by allowing the user to lock the measurement at will.
Most voice-activated systems under development today attempt to interpret the meaning of a command. However, word-recognition systems are complex and greatly increase the cost of the application. Usually they require special “training” sessions to calibrate recognition parameters, special microphones and software, and still they make numerous errors. For measurement applications, full word recognition is not necessary because only a couple of basic command functions are needed, for example, “Go” and “Reset”. For all these applications, full word recognition is an unnecessary expense.
What is needed is a voice-activated measuring instrument that performs the measurement on spoken command, and resets on spoken command. Preferably the instrument could use an inexpensive and versatile, speaker-independent sound-interpretation strategy rather than word recognition. Such an instrument would have innumerable applications in research, business, sports, and home life.